Biodiversity, Brazil, Environment

Peru’s mega-dam projects threaten Amazon River source and ecosystem collapse

by David Hill
April 28, 2015
news.mongabay.com

'The Marañón River in Peru where the government is proposing more than 20 dams on the main trunk.' Photo credit: David Hill
‘The Marañón River in Peru where the government is proposing more than 20 dams on the main trunk.’ Photo credit: David Hill

Peru is planning a series of huge hydroelectric dams on the 1,700-kilometer (1,056-mile) Marañón River, which begins in the Peruvian Andes and is the main source of the Amazon River. Critics say the mega-dam projects could destroy the currently free-flowing Marañón, resulting in what Peruvian engineer Jose Serra Vega calls its “biological death.”

In 2011, Peru passed a law declaring the construction of 20 dams on the main trunk of the Marañón to be in the “national interest” and that the projects will launch the country’s “long-term National Energy Revolution.” But many Peruvians following the issue believe the planned dams are less about meeting “national demand” for electricity as the law reads, and more about supplying mining companies, and exporting to neighboring countries.  More…